ANIMAL LIFE IN THE WOODS 169 



" Chip " has many enemies, still his life seems to be a happy 

 one. The farmer's cat catches many a chipmunk and 

 gopher, when she has to provide for a family of hungry 

 kittens ; the weasel stalks him through the brash, follows 

 him up into the trees, and even pursues him into his bur- 

 rows. Hawks and owls pounce upon him, while he scampers 

 along the old zigzag fences ; and the farmer boys brush him 

 off the fences with cruel clubs, and take their first shoot- 

 ing lessons while gunning for " chip " and his cousins. 



But in spite of all enemies, the chipmunks hold their own. 

 They are prolific breeders, five or six young being generally 

 found in a nest ; they find their food almost anywhere, and 

 on account of their small size they can find homes and hiding- 

 places everywhere. 



Because the chipmunk has so many enemies, it has learned, 

 like most wild animals, to be always on the alert. The habits 

 of "chip" have been well observed and described by John 

 Burroughs and Charles C. Abbott. I once more quote from 

 the latter ; he writes about a family of eight as follows : 

 " On the 23d of June six young chipmunks made their ap- 

 pearance about the stone wall in the yard. It puzzles me 

 even now when I think of it, to imagine when this family 

 of eight chatterboxes took any rest or kept moderately quiet. 

 Very frequently during that summer I was astir at sunrise, 

 and I always found that these chipmunks were already on 

 the go, and throughout July they appeared to do little but 

 play. They seemed to be playing at what children know 

 as * tag,' i.e. they chased each other to and fro in a wild, 

 madcap fashion, and tried to touch or catch one another, and 

 sometimes to bite one another's tail. Occasionally the tail 

 of some laggard gets a nip and he gives a pitiful squeal 

 which starts them all to chattering. The way in which they 

 scamper along the tapering points of a paling fence is 



Cabbage butterflies and monarch butterflies, their eggs and larvae. 



